Mullen?s best chance for a Natty was 2018

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Originally Posted by BrunswickDawg

Not having a Fred Ross or healthy Donald Gray is really what kept '17 and '18 truly special. We didn't replace Ross and Gray was injured, and Fitz' passing numbers declined dramatically. Like 800 passing yards dramatically.
THAT is why missing on AJ Brown was such a kick in the nuts. Put AJ on the '17 and '18 teams and we are a NC contender both seasons.

Exactly. That's a good example of what I am talking about when I say Dan wasn't a good recruiter. A player like that in your backyard you HAVE TO do whatever you can do to get him on the team. Truth is Dan's offense isn't attractive to WR's. And Dan's attitude was so shit that he just blamed AJ's Dad.

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Originally Posted by StarkVegasSteve

Our receivers would've held us back in 18. We would've beaten FL but we still would've lost to one of LSU/Kentucky, lost to Bama, and maybe even lost one more due to Mullen shopping himself. We were still not going to the playoffs and Mullen would've bolted in 18, FOR ANYWHERE. My guess is that he probably would've taken the Ohio St job when Urban stepped down. But if he missed that one he would've just taken the Maryland job.

That's what people don't understand I guess. Mullen was done at Mississippi State after 2015. Hell he almost left after 16 and took the damn UCONN job. That's how much he was done with Mississippi State. He thought he had the Miami job in 15 and Richt swooped in and took it at the last minute. Then he tried to pivot and get the Maryland job but they were too far down the road with DJ Durkin.

You're exactly right. I think there are a lot of MSU fans that act like there is a chance that having gone to Florida and not being treated a la carte like MSU treated him would make him want to come back. It's just not reality. It would be like someone hoping their prom date divorces their husband and comes back to marry them because they really loved them all along.

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Originally Posted by Dawgology

All Cohen had to do was pay up. He didn’t want to. He would have had to way overpay but everyone knew the next year was it. The big one. Once again…cheap boosters and a sorry AD at the time. Even if we didn’t win a NC we would have been in the thick of it and in the playoffs. Money. Well. Spent. But oh well…let him go and look for a discount hahahahaha

Believe it or not- and I think this will reinforce StarkVegasSteve's point- we actually offered Dan MORE than Florida and Dan still left. So it wasn't about MSU being cheap at all. It was 100% about Dan wanting to leave.

The funny thing is part of the reason Dan wanted to go to Florida is because he thought it would be easier to recruit there. Which blows my mind to this day because they have two blueblood programs in that state in Florida State and Miami that are direct rivals of Florida. Dan lost a lot of Florida boosters when he lost Emmitt Smith's son to Stanford. If he had done that at MSU our fans would have rationalized that away as "Wellllll you can't really compete with a degree from Stanford." At Florida you get fired. He was also starting to lose battles to UCF as well.